Ottawa’s Ultraman Canada champion: Kevin Willis

from Issue #44 - Ottawa Outdoors Magazine

Exploring world flavours in your backyard

IT’S NOT (JUST) ABOUT THE BIKE My journey to a triathlon life

By Kevin Willis

My high school classmates doodled pictures of electric guitars, or rockets, or scrawled the names of soccer teams in the margins of their textbooks. But I drew a thing of beauty and the object of my desire – the Campagnolo Rally long-cage rear derailleur. The money I earned as a teenager from delivering newspapers on my hand-me-down bike didn’t stretch to Campy components, so I wanted them all the more.

Yes, for as long as I can a 24-hour, 300-kilometre remember I’ve been a gearaholic. recreational bike ride in Sweden.

So the effect of seeing a carbon The instructor, Julia Aimers fiber triathlon "Ultraman Canada is in August in British bike Columbia's Okanagan desert, as hot as really jolted me.

n + 1, where n is the number you already have.

Keep in mind that a carbon fiber tri bike is not just another bike. Though it’s irresistible to a gearaholic, it’s of little use for anything other than triathlons. And that was the problem. How could I justify the horrendous cost of buying one given that I could barely swim and hated running?

But …

The year before I had joined a local spinning group to prepare for the Vätternrundan,

Kona, with serious hills, dirt roads, and a double marathon length"

It was early in 2007 on a business of Team Triumph, was also a trip to San Francisco in a store swimming and triathlon coach. selling triathlon gear. By then, So after returning from San at age 46, I had a garage full of Francisco, with Julia’s help and bikes – commuter, mountain, driven by tri bike desire, I started road, even a tandem. And as swimming. any serious cyclist knows, the My first triathlon was in number of bikes that you need is Perth and it was great race for

newcomers – a 500-metre pool swim, 16-kilometre bike ride, and three-kilometre run followed by a potluck lunch. Now while the number of bikes you need is n + 1, the size of your collection is severely limited by “Factor S”: the spouse. It seemed incomprehensible to me, but I was told most definitively that I did not need a carbon tri bike for Perth.

Following prolonged negotiations, the compromise was an aero-framed aluminum road bike along with two seats and posts so that my wife and I could swap saddles and share it. My tight-fitting tri top for the ride and run legs was a rookie mistake, as I wasted a good five minutes in transition struggling to get the top on my wet torso!

I took a break to cycle across Canada in 2008, but over the next few years I accumulated experience and new gear in the Somersault series and other local triathlons, building from sprints through Olympics to halfirons. I pimped out the bike with aero bars and aero race wheels. It was starting to resemble a tri bike, but to justify a pro-level carbon bike, I knew I would need to step up to Ironman.

OTTAWA'S KEVIN WILLIS 2014 ULTRAMAN CANADA CHAMPION

Over the winter of 2010, with My bike held up in the big the help of the Full Cycle bike leagues and to my surprise I shop, I built my custom carbon qualified for the 2012 Ironman dream bike, obsessing over every World Championships in Hawaii. component – titanium bolts, Even the spouse agreed my Teflon-coated cables to reduce dream bike was justified now – I friction – every was going to be performance advantage was considered and

"Everywhere you look there is

racing against Lance in Kona! Regrettably Mr. incorporated. hardcore bike porn." Armstrong had I had a great to withdraw (the season in title of this article 2011 culminating in a win parodies the title of his book), but at Somersault’s iron-distance that was the only disappointment “Canadian” race. So I signed at Kona. up for the 2012 Lake Placid Kona is all about the gear. and inaugural Mont Tremblant Everyone looks super fit and Ironman events. wears the latest running shoes

and sports shades. Everywhere you look there is hardcore bike porn. The air rings with the zzzzz sound of Zipp hubs. The major brands are omnipresent, showing off pre-release products and giving away swag. A gearaholic’s dream come true!

I spent 2013 recovering from gear overdose and planning the future: I was accepted into the 2014 Ultraman Canada event, a three-day stage race consisting of a 10-kilometre swim and 145-kilometre bike, then a 276-kilometre bike, and on the final day an 84-kilometre run. That last stage that had me worried. I knew how much fun it was to run a marathon in the baking heat of Hawaii’s lava fields. Ultraman Canada is in August in British Columbia’s Okanagan desert, as hot as Kona, with serious hills, dirt roads, and a double marathon length – twice as far as I had ever run.

Facing around 2,000 kilometres of run training, with an undying disliked of running, the only way to cope was gear therapy: ultra-specific running shoes, a hydration pack to carry water and fuel for those five-hour-plus training runs, and the best thing in GPS watches to log the suffering and to find my way home.

When the race happened, the new gear and the training to strengthen my weakest link paid off. My goal was just to finish, so my age group world record was unexpected to say the least. This was not just about the bike or gear – it would not have been possible without the excellent support from my crew.

Now I know I need a power meter for the 2015 season, and frame design has advanced so much that I definitely need a new bike. But Factor S always has the last word: “What you need are sponsors!” 

WHAT IS THE ULTRAMAN? IT'S A THREE-DAY STAGE RACE CONSISTING OF: 10KM SWIM 145KM BIKE 276KM BIKE 84KM RUN

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